Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
Adam knocks on my open bedroom door. “House meeting in five.”
I look up from my phone. “All right, but I’m not taking a shot every time I want to talk.”
House meetings around here tend to end with us solving very little and getting drunk instead.
He snorts. “I already warned Maverick the apartment is dry until after Friday’s game.” He lingers, leaning on the doorframe. “Carrie?”
“Nah.” Though she’s texted plenty, too. “I’m texting Sienna.”
“What’s she up to?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t sent anything yet.” Since we went out Tuesday night, I’ve been struggling to figure out what the next move is.
Adam clicks his tongue. “Maybe say ‘hi, how are you doing?’”
“What if she responds with ‘K’? Then what? It’s been a couple of days and I think I might have waited too long.”
“Bring your phone,” he says, pushing up to his full height. “We’ll tackle that after the meeting.”
We gather in the living room. Maverick always attends our house meetings even though he doesn’t live here. He’s here as much as the rest of us, so it makes sense even if it doesn’t make sense. He’s on the couch with Charli next to him and a metal water bottle in his lap.
“That better be water,” Adam says, sitting in the worn leather chair.
I grab a chair from the dining room table and pull it into the living room.
“What’s on the agenda, Cap?” Heath asks. He and Mav bump fists. They give Adam a lot of shit for these house meetings, but they’re usually—no, always—the cause of them.
“I want to make sure the guys are keeping straight until after tomorrow’s game. I know everyone wants to party and celebrate, but we can’t have anyone fucking around and getting hurt or showing up to practice hungover.”
“Pretty sure Ketch was still drunk this morning,” Heath says.
A few of the younger guys went out again last night and practice this morning was shit. You’d think it wouldn’t be such a struggle to stay sober for three freaking days. But it’s exciting and unlike us, the younger guys don’t appreciate just how fucking rare it is to get this far.
The vein in my buddy’s head is popping. A sure sign he’s stressed. “Exactly. That shit can’t fly.”
“He still managed to block most of what we threw at him,” Mav pipes up.
“Most,” Adam emphasizes.
“He lives in the dorms. How are we supposed to make sure he doesn’t drink?” I ask.
“Glad you asked,” Adam says. “I am inviting all the guys to stay here tonight.”
“Here?” Heath points with both hands to the floor.
“Mhmmm.”
“You wanna have a fucking sleepover?” Mav barks a laugh. “I apologize for my language. Please strike the f-word from the minutes.”
Heath pretends like he’s scratching it out from an imaginary pad of paper. “So noted.”
“You’re serious?” I ask, trying to bring us back to the topic. The thought of our place sleeping even half the team makes my brain hurt.
“Some of the guys aren’t going to like you fucking with their routines,” Heath says. “And we can’t exactly enforce it.”
“Like hell I can’t. Nothing is getting in the way of us going to the Frozen Four. Nothing.”
None of us have spoken the phrase Frozen Four since we won the semifinal game Monday night. The Frozen Four is this end goal that we’ve all been silently working toward but don’t talk about because we don’t want to jinx it.
“Okay.” I’m the first to agree. I trust Adam’s instincts as our captain and if he thinks this is the best thing, I’ll support him. “Where are we going to fit everyone?”
“We have three apartments if you include the girls.” He nods toward Dakota and Reagan’s apartment across the breezeway.
“I'll sleep there with a few other guys. They said we could use their living room. The rest will be here and at Maverick’s.” He shrugs.
“It’ll be tight, but we’ll make it work for a night. ”
“Fine, but Ginny’s staying over tonight. It’s my routine on home games.”
“It’s your routine every night,” I add. Our rooms share a wall so I’m well aware of his ritual of banging his girlfriend every night. She’s his lucky rabbit’s foot and he rubs that shit every night.
“Just...” Adam sighs. “Sneak her in before the guys get here. I don’t want to hear them all bitching about how unfair it is that you get to shack up with your girlfriend and they don’t.”
Heath smiles, fighting back a huge grin. “Anyone else find it funny that this guy is telling me to sneak his sister into my room?” He looks around to us. “No one? Well, I think it’s fucking hilarious.”
“Or she could stay at her dorm if you prefer.” Adam scowls.
“No, no. I’ll sneak her in.” He chuckles. “This is turning out to be more fun than I thought already.”
“Anything else?” Mav asks.
“Uhh yeah.” Adam glances to me. “Rhett needs our help texting Sienna. He’s overthinking it.”
I glare at him. When he said we’d tackle it, I thought he meant the two of us.
“Shouldn’t you have loads of experience in the art of sexting after dating Carrie for six years, most of that long distance?”
“This is different,” Adam answers before I can. “This is new relationship stuff.”
“So dick pics?” Heath asks.
I put my face in my hands. Fuck my life. “No, not a dick pic. I just want to say hey and make plans with her sometime.”
“I’d go with a dick pic. That says it all. Trust me.” Heath grins. I think he enjoys saying shit like that just to get a rise out of Adam. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn Heath is sending photos of his junk to Ginny on the regular.
Carrie wasn’t into that, and I’ve thankfully never had to try to take a compelling picture of my dick to send a girl.
“Nah, nah, I’ve got you, bro.” Maverick stands, holding Charli in his arms. He drops his dog on my lap. “Hand me your phone.”
Charli is a cool dog. Super chill and pretty damn cute, too, but I’m not sure what he’s going for when he says, “Say Charli’s the best dog in the whole world.”
“Charli’s the best dog in the whole world,” I repeat, and give his French bulldog a little rub behind her ears.
“Okay, never mind. That one didn’t turn out. Just smile.”
Maverick stands in front of me for a solid minute taking photos until I can’t smile any longer.
“Okay, what the fuck are we doing here?”
His thumb swipes across the screen. “No, no, no, maybe, no. Ha! Charli looks scared of you in this one. No, no, no. Ooooh. What do we think?” He shows the phone to Adam.
My buddy shrugs. “What’s the plan?”
“Send that to Sienna. Dog pics are far superior to dick pics.”
Well, I was feeling hopeful he had some master plan, but seriously?
“She isn’t even my dog.”
“So?” He takes Charli and tosses me the phone. “I’ve tracked it. You’re three times more likely to get laid sending that picture than one of your dick. Or, I am anyway.”
“Maybe your dick is ugly,” Heath says.
“Fuck off, my dick is beautiful, and don’t pretend like you haven’t seen it.”
“Well, I haven’t, so please, don’t show us.” Adam holds up a hand. Then he looks to me. “It's worth a shot. Charli’s a really fucking cute dog.”
“I just send the pic? No explanation?”
Mav groans, takes my phone, taps something out and hands it back. “I didn’t realize you needed me to do it all for you, Rauthruss. You’re welcome.”
Oh fuck. A pit forms in my stomach as I read the text he sent. Meet Charli (Mav's dog). She likes to cuddle with me.
And along with the text, he sent one of the pics.
“That’s it? That’s the magic? You didn’t say anything about me wanting to hang out.”
My phone pings and the guys all wait for me to read it.
“Awww! She’s adorable. What are you doing later?”
Mav pumps his fist in the air. “And that’s how it’s done, boys.”
The team is less resistant than I expected about spending a night sleeping on our living room floor. Adam and Maverick go to the store to get groceries. Ginny showed up not long after our house meeting and she and Heath haven’t come out of his room since.
I walk to the front door, phone to my ear.
“I’m here,” she says. “I think. All of these apartments look the same.”
I open the door as Sienna gets to the top of the landing.
“Coast still clear?” she whispers.
“The team should be here in the next thirty minutes or so.” I open my arms and she wraps hers around my waist. She’s still in her workout gear from teaching yoga. “Missed you.”
She laughs softly against my chest. “Good. I sort of missed you too.”
My grin is wide and can’t be helped. “Sure you’re up for this?”
“Are you kidding? A night with the entire hockey team. I’d be stupid to pass that up.” She winks and walks into the apartment.
Who knew sneaking a girl in could be so much fun? We don’t really need to sneak. Not until the team gets here, but we head straight back to my room.
There’s something about trying to keep quiet that makes us both giggle as I shut my door and kiss her.
“I thought you said you needed to study. I brought my books.”
“Later,” I promise.
I frame her face with my hands and back her up to the bed. She falls onto the mattress and I cover her.
At this point we’ve spent hours kissing, and it’s been awesome, but tonight I’m hoping she’s ready for more. My dick kicks against my jeans. Every movement she makes below me makes me harder.
Her hands slip under my T-shirt and roam over my back, pulling me down harder against her. Looks like we’re of one mind—remove clothes, get closer.
I rear back and remove my T-shirt. Her green eyes darken as she checks me out. Taking her hands, I pull her up to a sitting position, take her mouth again, and inch her tank top up. She raises her arms letting me bring it over her head. She smiles shyly as my gaze lowers.
Her bra is hot pink with a little bow right between her cleavage. I finger the delicate knot.
“I like this.” I lean forward and press a kiss to her stomach, then hook my fingers around the clasp in the back. She shrugs out of it and tosses it to the floor. “Like it even better now.”
I capture her mouth, swallowing the light laughter, and bringing us back down to the mattress.
I try not to rush this, savoring the top half of her before taking it to the next level, but Sienna grinds into my dick while she kisses me like she’s been able to think of nothing else since we last saw each other. That would make two of us.
No time like the present. I scoot down, trailing kisses along her stomach. Her leggings mold to her lean hips and stomach, I inch them down, adding more kisses along the top of her panties.
Her hips lift as I settle between her legs. I slide one finger under the material leaving goose bumps behind.
Fuck, I don’t think I’ve ever been so turned on in all my life as she threads her fingers through my hair, encouraging me to move lower.
“Hey,” Adam’s deep voice sounds as he walks into my room.
Sienna yelps. I jump up in front of her shielding her with my body, and Adam takes in the scene in front of him, then quickly turns to face the other direction, closing the door with him still inside.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t see anything.”
“Get the hell out, man.”
“Nice to see you again, Sienna.” He’s covering his eyes with a hand even as he faces the opposite way.
“Hey, Adam.” Her voice is tight but filled with amusement.
“Dude,” I say again.
“See you took it upon yourself to sneak in a girl as well.”
“Apparently not well enough when people walk in my damn room without knocking.”
“Yeah, trust me, I’m as sorry as you, but uh, we need you. Team meeting on the deck.”
He fumbles for the door, still covering his eyes, and exits.
Sienna giggles and then slaps a hand over her mouth.
“I’m glad you find this funny,” I say. “My roommate may or may not have seen your boobs.”
She lifts a shoulder and lets it fall. “That was my master plan. A whole house of hockey players and me.” She grins. “Should I go out there with you like this?”
“Uh-uh, player.” I crawl back on top of her. “You’re just mine tonight.”